Now, in a lot of his sketches, Ross gave the Green Goblin a broadsword. Why? Well, Ross read a lot of fantasy novels, and figured a broadsword was a natural weapon for a goblin to have.

Watching some of the previews and commercials for Spider-Man 3, what do we see Harry Osborn armed with, as he takes on Spider-Man?

A broadsword.

As the folks at Pixar say, good ideas have a way of bubbling to the surface.

I was reading an interview with Alex Ross when these sketches first came out. He said that, for a teaser poster, they should focus on Spider-Man's mask, or maybe even just the eyes. "The common practice it to use the chest logo," said Ross, "But let's be honest. the most iconic part of Spider-Man's costume isn't the chest logo, it's his mask."

You'll also notice that in the unused Alex Ross mask design, Spidey's got black eyes instead of the usual white. This was because, unsure that proper white lenses could be found in the real world, Ross chose black, thinking that if someone realistically made this costume in their bedroom, they'd just take the lenses out of a pair of sunglasses.

And, having to give credit where credit is due, I "borrowed" these images from the official Alex Ross website.In other Spider-Man 3 news, it's being reported that, based on the advance ticket sales alone, Spider-Man 3 has already secured the #1 spot at next week's box office.

I haven't bought my advance tickets yet. I'm thinking about doing that this afternoon, and trying my first shot at this whole "buying advance tickets online" thing. I got a long way to go to see a movie now. I'd feel quite screwed over to go all that way to find that it's sold out.

I almost bought my advance tickets when I saw Next back on Wednesday (story behind that and movie review are forthcoming), but that was at Edmonton's North Edmonton Cinema. I want to see Spider-Man 3 at SilverCity in West Edmonton Mall.

Why? Because that's where I saw the first two. It's a continuity thing.